With so much confusion and numerous jumpscares, it’s no wonder I can’t sleep. Welcome to Horror Tales – The Beggar, developed by Carlos Coronado and Published by JanduSoft. Now sit back and let the horrors tell you a tale.

Set in what was once a thriving civilisation, Horror Tales – The Begger takes you through a sci-fi post-apocalyptic wasteland; the result of a mysteriously catastrophic unsolved event. Filled with intrigue, your journey will take you across a series of intertwined countries, each a unique blend of landscapes and cultures twisted and mashed together by unknown forces. Navigating this strange new world, you’ll discover new powers that will guide you on your path.

A short cutscene opens the game, briefly introducing you, The Beggar, to your current situation. Waking up, you are shown how to walk and look around before your first encounter with what we would initially know as The Entity. This was a real mind-boggler, and it seems that every room may not be what it seems at first.

With numerous mind-bending rooms, this game reminded me of Visage. As you turn one way, what was behind you changes, and this really threw me for a loop. As you progress, the friendly AI robot who found you in a jail cell starts to show you abilities you can use throughout your journey.

The first is as simple as interacting with items, but this eventually moves to using Gravity Pull to pick up items such as barrels, along with other small and medium items.

Soon after, you learn that the Entity’s entire purpose is to hunt you, and anyone else exposed to the toxic Banydebosc wine for prolonged periods of time, down. More widely as Morvin among the population, the Entity is a hallucination, a direct result of the toxic wine, and as far as Morvin is concerned, they all need to perish.

After your first encounter with Morvin, you journey through stages filled with a variety of puzzles and brain teasers, and as day changes to night, the lands move around as if there is no gravity. This has the benefit of granting access to new places, and of course, using your Gravity Pull to launch objects at Morvin. Damn that Morvin.

The control system of Horror Tales – The Beggar may seem strange at first, but it blends well with the gameplay after a bit of use. The left trigger is used to interact with doors and other items, while the right trigger has multiple functions, the first being your Gravity Pull to grab items from far away. It also controls your light, which can be frustrating when trying to light your path and objects start flying towards you. Using the right bumper will switch the time of day, which is a neat feature for the reasons mentioned before, but otherwise, the controls are the basic first-person layout.

The graphics for Horror Tales – The Beggar are quite impressive and feature very in-depth settings to fine-tune them from basic to cinematic levels of detail. A realistic art style shows the decay of buildings over time, with rusted rebar sticking out of crumbling concrete and making you feel like a lot of time has passed. The broken world somehow still has power, but this is used to create some incredible shading on objects close by, as well as distant structures, tying everything together and creating an impressive atmosphere.

I found the sound to be quite simple yet very effective. Ominous sounds bring the surrounding area to life, such as the wind blowing through empty rooms, or the clanging of metal that draws your attention away from a potential chase scene, really giving the game that edgy and thrilling experience. Sound effects are equally as impressive, with strange spacy sounds to accompany your gravity pull as you manipulate objects, really driving home the question, “Is this just a hallucination?”

Horror Tales – The Beggar has some unique ideas that fit in well with the sci-fi genre. Fantastic graphics support an incredible level of detail, while the ability to manipulate gravity as an aid in solving the puzzles to reach new areas makes this a game to throw on your “must-play” list. Even more so if you love a good horror game.

Written by: TypicalCambieAU